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Murray Gold is a television and film composer currently best known as the in-house music maestro of the revived series of Doctor Who. He has also provided soundtracks for Shameless, Queer as Folk, and has worked with composer/conductor Ben Foster as well as co-composer Stu Kennedy on Torchwood. His film scores include I Want Candy and Hoodwinked Too: Hood Vs. Evil.
His work provides examples of[]
- Associated Composer: Has provided several scores for writer/producer Russell T. Davies, including Queer as Folk, Casanova, and of course, Doctor Who. He hung around on the latter when Steven Moffat took the reigns, however.
- Bootstrapped Theme: Several, despite the popularity of the Doctor Who theme tune. "All the Strange, Strange Creatures" was used in endless promotional material after receiving its first airing during the Series Three trailer.
- Bootstrapped Leitmotif: "Captain Jack's Theme" from Torchwood was initially used as a generic action/chase theme. It prominently stood in as Jack's theme in part of Series Two (and tagged as such on the soundtrack) and throughout Children of Earth.
- The Day the Music Lied: The End of Time, Part Two: The insanely uplifting music as the Time Lords disappear and the Doctor wakes up contributes to the deceitful idea that the Doctor might survive the prophecy. The music duly screeches to a halt as soon as the four knocks are heard.
- Dramatic Pause:
- "The Pandorica Opens": Silence falls in the final shot of the universe fading out of existence, with even the music cutting off abruptly.
- To a lesser degree, The End of Time, Part Two: The joyful heroism of "The Clouds Part", following the Master's attack on Rassilon and the fall of the Time Lords, comes to a halt when the four knocks begin, literally powering down to silence.
- Dream Melody: The sound of drums, and everything that entails.
- Ethereal Choir: Various, notably the One-Woman Wail of "The Doctor's Theme" and latterly "The Mad Man with a Box", and the Ominous Hebrew Chanting of the Daleks.
- Heartbeat Soundtrack: The sound of drums, and the theme tune's bassline.
- Left the Background Music On: "Forest of the Dead", when the little girl is flicking through TV channels, the BGM changes for each shot.
- Leitmotif
- Lonely Piano Piece: The End of Time, Part Two: "Four Knocks".
- Mocking Music: A possible example from The End of Time, Part Two: When the Eleventh Doctor exclaims "I'm a girl!" during his post-regeneration crisis, the guitar riff briefly suggests a mocking, "nyah-nyah-na-na-na!" melody.
- Musicalis Interruptus: "The Pandorica Opens".
- Musical Nod: Gold sometimes sprinkles retro-sounding synth into his scores, to evoke the Classic Series. Notably done for the reveal of the TARDIS in "Rose".
- Musical Spoiler: "Army of Ghosts". The Daleks' theme music gears up to their reveal at the end of the episode.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: "There will be only Dalek music!"
- One-Woman Wail: Melanie Pappenheim and Yamit Mamo for various pieces including "The Doctor's Theme", "Doomsday" and "The Mad Mad With a Box".
- Orchestral Version: Gold's 2005 reworking of the "Doctor Who Theme" (though John Debney got there first with his theme for the TV Movie).
- Playing the Heart Strings: "The Pandorica Opens".
- Psycho Strings: Various, including the Master, "Midnight" and the Weeping Angels.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: "The Christmas Invasion": Gold was particularly pleased to hear "Jingle Bells" was out of copyright, and thus available for rescoring as battle music during the christmas tree attack.
- Rearrange the Song:
- Gold has rearranged the Doctor Who Theme no less than four times in the space of six years.
- "Martha's Theme" sounds suspiciously like a rearrangement of "The Doctor Forever" (or vice versa, given their introduction at around the same time), intended to hint at the connection between the two characters.
- Recurring Riff: The Doctor Who theme, across all six of Gold's series (and for forty years prior).
- Recycled Trailer Music: Inverted. The pre-series trailers were often used to debut a new theme; Series Three's "All the Strange, Strange Creatures" (which didn't appear until episode three) and "I Am the Doctor" prior to its use in episode one of Series Five.
- Soundtrack Dissonance:
- "Love Don't Roam", a pop song played at a wedding party all about being separated from your loved one forever.
- "The Pandorica Opens".
- Suspiciously Similar Song: Gold has confirmed that his opening track from Series One, "Westminster Bridge", is an imitation of Pixies' Cecilia Ann.
- Theme Music Power-Up: Various. "The Doctor's Theme" made a triumphant return at the climax of "Forest of the Dead" and "The End of Time, Part 2". "The Doctor Forever" is often used for moments of heroism (especially "Voyage of the Damned"). "Martha's Theme" becomes "Triumphant" in her final scene of "Last of the Time Last"; and "I Am the Doctor" is basically one big power up (but its most epic form is "Words Win Wars", over the Doctor's speech at Stonehenge).
- Theme Song Assonance:
- The Master's Theme incorporates both the "four knocks" bass line from the show's theme tune as well as a rising string motif that screams "The Mah-STER! The MAH-STER!" Gold confirmed in his liner notes.
- Jack's Theme in Torchwood was based on the phrase, "Here Comes Jack in a Ruddy Big Tractor", as a reference to a (literally) barn-storming arrival in the episode "Countrycide", accompanied by the theme.
- Theme Song Reveal: "Utopia": "This Is Gallifrey (Our Childhood, Our Home)" plays under a couple of scenes with Professor Yana, hinting at his nature as a Time Lord (though only in retrospect, as the theme is only properly introduced and connected to Gallifrey in the next episode, once Yana has been revealed as the Master).
- Theme Tune Cameo: The sound of drums, and "The Doctor's Theme" rising out of the climax of "Vale Decem").